Why is my power out right now?
First: is it just you?
Check your breaker panel for a tripped main, and look at your neighbors' homes. If they have power and you don't, the problem may be your service line or panel — report it to your utility either way. If the block is dark, it's an outage: type your address into our tracker to see how many customers are affected around you and the current restoration outlook.
The usual causes
Weather dominates: wind and falling trees, ice accumulation on lines, lightning, and heat that overloads equipment. Equipment failure (transformers, underground cable) happens without any storm. Animals — mostly squirrels — cause thousands of outages a year by bridging equipment. Vehicle crashes into poles take out circuits locally. And some outages are planned maintenance your utility scheduled (these usually carry an announced window).
Rolling blackouts are different
During extreme grid stress (heat waves, deep freezes), operators may rotate short, deliberate outages to protect the grid. These are shorter but can recur. Our tracker flags likely rotation patterns when we detect areas cycling on and off.
When to call 911
A downed power line is a 911 call — treat every line as live, stay far away (at least 35 feet), and never touch anything or anyone in contact with it, per Red Cross guidance. Report outages themselves to your utility (its number is on your bill and on your area's page here).
Just your house? Work the checklist
Reset the main breaker fully off, then on. Test GFCI outlets (kitchen/bath/garage) — one tripped GFCI can kill several rooms' outlets. Look (from the ground, without touching) at the meter and the mast where the line meets your house: if it's pulled away, bent, or the line sags, stay clear and call the utility — damage on that hardware is theirs or an electrician's, never yours to touch. Partial power (some rooms bright, some dead, lights dimming oddly) usually means a problem with one of the wires feeding your home — report it; it can damage appliances.
Blinks vs. outages
A one-second flicker that comes right back usually means automatic equipment cleared a temporary fault — a branch brushing a line, an animal contact — before it became an outage. A few blinks a year is normal grid behavior; frequent blinks on calm days are worth reporting, because they can point at failing equipment on your circuit.
Planned and safety shutoffs
Utilities also turn power off on purpose: scheduled maintenance (announced to affected addresses with a window) and, in some regions, public-safety power shutoffs during extreme fire weather, where lines are de-energized so they can't spark a fire. These follow the utility's notifications rather than a restoration crew's progress — your utility's alerts are the authoritative source for both.
Reporting it well
Report through your utility's app, site, or outage line even if you assume neighbors already have — outage-management systems triangulate from reports. Mention hazards explicitly (line down, tree on line, burning smell): those route differently, and a downed line is a 911 call first.
Reading the outage map like a pro
The shape of an outage hints at its cause. One home: your service line, mast, or panel. A few houses on one street: a tap line or a single transformer. A neighborhood-sized block: a distribution circuit or the automatic switch that protects it. A whole region at once: transmission or a substation — bigger fix, but the highest-priority crews. Your area's page shows the affected count live, which is exactly this signal.
A note on scam calls
Outage moments attract impostor "utility" calls demanding instant payment to restore service. Restoration crews don't work that way — verify anything surprising by calling the number on your actual bill.
How restoration actually proceeds
Utilities restore in a deliberate order — see our guide to how power restoration works — which is why two streets can come back hours apart.